Otranto to Lecce

November 24, 2023

More spectacular coastline

Sunshine to start the day! And, as it tuned out, the whole day. Perfect temp too.

Travelling in November had its advantages - great places to stay for low prices. I had snagged another lovely apartment. It wasn’t ideal only because my bike had to be hauled up a whole lot of stairs and stored in the living room. My hostess was delightful. She moved to Otranto as a child from Brazil. Her husband’s family is from La Maddalena in Sardinia, and she was pleased to hear that we’d been there. Her husband works on ships and is currently away for four months. I gather from reviews of the apartment that he is equally delightful, and is a ship’s captain.

The apartment was newly renovated and very quiet, with lightening fast wifi that has been my experience throughout Puglia.

Again, I was the only guest, and I was provided a very nice breakfast with yogurt, fruit, granola, and pastry. She even had decaf coffee. And like yesterday, I was offered me food to go, so I left with a spare apple.

I toured the very nice waterfront of Otranto, then made my way north along the Adriatic. My route to Lecce wasn’t the most direct. I went north for about 40 km, then made a sharp left hand turn to go inland.

Having failed to do any research on my route, I was in for a wonderful surprise - I found a network of trails along the undeveloped oceanfront. I look a chance and followed them. The risk was low because this area is very flat, so backtracking would be easy. The paths were not bikeable in all areas because they got narrow, but they were walkable, and it was easy to push my bike. The trails provide beach access, and I’m sure this area is very popular in the summer. But today it was just me and some dog walkers. I saw a fellow clearing the thick hedges to keep a trail passable.

Otranto’s waterfront has been nicely developed.

Quiet country road marked as a cycle way.

The trail got narrower in places. But someone is maintaining it.

Buoyed by the great trails, I ad-libbed again through an area of vacation homes and farmland. That was a nice ride until it ended in a plowed field that I walked through, and a locked gate that I had to haul my bike around over a stone fence, sans panniers. No more adventuring after that. Haha.

I stopped at the archaeological site Grotto della Poesia (‘Cave of Poetry’). The interpretive signage wasn’t very good. All I got out of it was that it’s an archaeological site with Greek and Latin history. The spectacular bit at this site are the karst caves and a beautiful water pool. The signs clearly indicate that swimming is forbidden, but there are lots of web postings that say it’s a great place to swim. Perhaps it’s like bikes on the trains - take note of the rules, then ignore them. I’d love to swim here, but didn’t chance it on my own. At the site, I chatted with some nice Germans. They are here in their camper van avoiding the grey weather at home in Frankfurt. They said they only go home at Christmas to see their adult kids, then they’ll drive to Spain.

Uh-oh. I may have explored a bit too far.

I encountered this locked gate and had to go over the rock wall seen at the left.

And another cave currently undergoing archaeological investigation.

The olive trees are in big trouble around here.

But I saw lots of this in bloom today. My phone tells me it’s morning glory.

Because of my route choice, I don’t think I passed an open cafe all day. I had a delicious roadside lunch just before I turned west towards Lecce.

It was really a beautiful day of biking. I avoided traffic all along the shore, and there was lots of morning glory in bloom. It was even easy riding the last 10 km to Lecce. There wasn’t much traffic on the route into this city of 95,000. My accommodation in the old part of the city is very nice, but it wasn’t the warm welcome I’ve had recently. I had to wait until the official check-in time of 3:30. I made good use of the wait time by wandering around a bit of the old city and having a gelato. Casa di Frida does have good bike storage in the courtyard.

I considered staying in Lecce another night because of the 10 to 20 mm of rain forecast for tomorrow during the day, but my apartment is booked. Instead, I’ll take the train to Ostuni, which gives me a bit of a shorter and downhill ride on Sunday to Taranto, where I’ll catch the train to Rome on Monday. I’ll have a better angle to the wind as well. The Sunday weather looks better than tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

My first impressions of Lecce are that everything is under construction. There’s lots of scaffolding and even some tower cranes.

I had delicious eggplant parmigiana for dinner - it had less mozzarella and more eggplant than you’d normally see in North America. The restaurant also had yummy red pepper and olive bread, complete with pits, so I had to chew carefully.

For people keeping track of my mom, she’s doing just fine with COVID. Just stuffed up, really. For her, the worst part will be the isolation from other residents of her independent living community, not being able to go to the pool, and missing out on a family dinner this weekend. We should all be so active at 94.

Fun Italian fact - the train connections between east and west Puglia aren’t great. To get from Lecce to Taranto (90 km), I’d have to go north to Bari, and change trains. It’d take 4 hours. Trenitalia services the direct route with buses, but that’s tricky with a bike. Lecce to Ostuni is a direct train that takes under an hour. No charge for bikes.

Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,103 km (685 miles)

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